Christmas Pictures

Short and sweet: Grammy and Papa came up the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with us (because of the baby coming soon, we didn't travel anywhere). Iain had fun helping everyone open his/her presents! And he LOVES his "treehouse," a platform fort with a slide from Grammy and Papa. On Saturday, Yaya (Jeremy's grandmother) and Aunt Gloria stopped by, and that night we went out for dinner at Mimi's. Iain got to sit in a seat that allowed him to look at the big real drumset they have perched on a tiny balcony near the ceiling - he loved that.




Christmas proper was spent with my family. Iain seemed to thrive on the chaos that always ensues when so many people (and so many little ones) are together. I'll have some better pictures soon - my flash wasn't working well.
Iain is talking lot lately. He says the first sound to many words: bath, ball, down, up, out, in, on, banana, Nona, Nan, dog, cat, snack, walk, watch, etc. Dog sounds like " doe" always said in a very deep voice, snack is "nack," and Nan is "nanananan." He also says Haylee ("ee-lah") and Kelsey ("klah"). Are those all the new words? I'm sure I'm forgetting some. He can make a sssssss sound and a rrrrr sound and a w sound. He often repeats words we're using. It's so fun to watch his language develop so fast.

The other day, he put his Christmas bear into the stroller, said "walk," and was on his way, pushing the bear along!
He got this hat from Jenna, the jacket from Kelsey, and the ball from Haylee - too cute! And lately, he makes this goofy grin whenever a camera is pulled out - especially if you tell him to say cheese.

One more picture: doesn't he look like Micah here?
Well, that's all the one-handed typing I care to do with a wiggly worm on my lap. Maybe the next entry will be a baby announcement!

Busy Week(s), part two

I know I said we'd be back in a few days... and that was weeks ago. We've been so busy we haven't had much time to think. Here's the run-down: the day of the last post, we got the carpet down in the new room. You'll see a picture of it in a second. We couldn't be on the carpet for a few days because of the toxic fumes and all that yuck. The next day, Jeremy and I moved everything out of Iain's room, our room, the study, and the living room and washed all the carpets with one of those rental things. It was so good to get the construction dirt out. But it was SO MUCH work. We spent the night at Mom's because there was no where to sleep as all the carpets were still wet. The next several days were mostly spent moving back in. We switched up all the rooms so Iain has our old bedroom (furthest to the back and hopefully the quietest), we are now in the old study (the biggest bedroom outside of the new room), and Jeremy is in Iain's old room. It was a lot of work too, moving everything - almost like moving into a new house. Anyway, I'm sure you all were anxiously awaiting all those details.

A few pictures of the little ham helping his dad in the new room:



Here's a picture of Iain celebrating the new carpet with one of those things you blow and they unroll....

And just to catch up, some Thanksgiving pictures. Here's Iain helping me make cookies (oatmeal carmelitas, thank you to Lauren!).

We spent the holiday with Jeremy's family. It was a very nice few days. Iain here is hugging Sanford's tail, playing with Uncle Phil and Kelly, and hiding in his favorite spot: under Grammy's school desk. He found a tin under there, and a gavel, and you can just imagine what he does with those.



Since Thanksgiving, we've been working on the house (what's new?), getting over a nasty stomach bug (which of course we all caught at once), and working on Grammy's birthday surprise. We made her an apron and drove down for a surprise visit, along with Phil and Kelly. Phil cooked a delicious meal for everyone.

When I say "we" made her an apron, I mean it. Everyone helped - even Jeremy! :) He turned one of the ties right-side out, and played with Iain so I could cut out. Here's what Iain did:

And here's Grammy playing ride a little pony with Iain. She had a different version yet!

And now Christmas is almost upon us. Iain LOVES the lights and Christmas trees, yelling until we acknowledge them whenever he sees any. He's also very into birds of any kind, garbage trucks, and school buses (no sign of him being afraid of them yet... *wink to my sisters*).
Newby is doing well, and we're anxious to meet him or her. Soon!

One more story, just so I don't forget to put it up later. There's a place around here that has a walk around a lake, and courtyards, etc. They had a big event where they were going to light up the Christmas lights placed all around the lake. Because of Iain's love of Christmas lights, we decided to take him. Well, it turned out to be a much bigger deal than just lighting the lights. They had balloon animal makers, face paint, live music, etc. We thought he'd like to see the singer/dancers, but he spotted one girl on the other side of the crowd who had a balloon - a regular one, not an animal. He spent the rest of the show yelling about it, trying to get us to "notice." We finally got him one and he was thrilled. Then, instead of just lighting the lights, they did a firework show and had some "snow" (bubbles) blowing out of something on us. Did Iain care? Nope. He had his balloon. He watched, but wasn't too interested. And the lights that finally got lit? No big deal. He had his balloon. Oh well - we tried.

And if you have read all of this and looked at all these pictures - and if you still even check this blog after all this time - you win!